Lost somewhere amid all the cookie baking, holiday parties and merry-making near the end of the year was nursing home operators' most optimistic story of 2013. The public has an all-time high opinion of you.

McKnight's Senior Editor Elizabeth Newman recently raised some thought-provoking questions about how "women manage women" in long-term care facilities with largely female staffs. Her blog got me thinking along some other lines: Male-female and male-male conflicts may become increasingly common as skilled nursing facilities become more gender diverse.